Hide your kids, hide your wife and hide your husband, and be sure to lock up your valuables. Sure, it’s unlikely that Company of Thieves or their similarly named robber brethren Caravan of Thieves will actually haul off with your belongings. But it’s also unlikely that each act would tour through town in the same week, and that’s happening, so some inspired heist isn’t completely out of the question.

Both bands are closing in on Columbus at this very moment. You’ll have an easier time outsmarting them if you can tell them apart. Let us help.

Hometown

Company: Chicago

Caravan: Bridgeport, Connecticut

Recommended if you like…

Company: Land of Talk, Paramore, Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone”

Caravan: The Decemberists, Gogol Bordello, Franz Nicolay

Latest album

Company: “Running From a Gamble,” a vibrant collection of melodic guitar rock that’s been making 102.5 listeners swoon

Company: Serendipitous Metra encounter between singer Genevieve Schatz and guitarist Marc Walloch. Schatz: “We crammed our group into the crowded seats and started talking music and Beatles and Marc and I quickly realized our undeniable connection! We were both completely lost in a huge city and trying to find our way, but seeing that our hopes for friends and musicians were unreasonably high and unable to be met … except by each other. We saved each other.”

Caravan: Holy matrimony between singer-guitarist-hat player Fuzz and singer-guitarist-hubcap player Carrie Sangiovanni. “It started as a romantic, bohemian vision of a couple making music, performing on the road, in parks, venues, traveling around and avoiding responsibility as much as possible.”

Potential complaints regarding exoticism

Company: Not exotic enough!

Caravan: Too exotic!

Band referencedas influence despite only the most tangential similarity: